After a video of a non-medical staff member suturing a man’s head wound at a Telangana government hospital went viral, an inquiry has been ordered into the incident. The video, filmed at the Patancheru Area Hospital, showed a man purported to be a security guard at the hospital, suturing a bleeding wound on the head of a man lying down on the hospital bed. As one of the men filming the procedure questions why there was no doctor available for an emergency case, the man applying the sutures claims that a doctor was actually present at the time, but adds that the hospital was understaffed.
The video was shared by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Sangareddy district president G Srikanth Goud, who demanded the suspension of the doctors on duty at the time of the incident. He demanded action from state Health Minister T Harish Rao and Patancheru MLA from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Gudem Mahipal Reddy, while questioning the state government’s claim of improving healthcare access in the state.
After the video of the incident went viral, Minister Harish Rao ordered an inquiry into the incident, The Hindu reported. Sangareddy District Coordinator of Hospital Services (DCHS) Dr K Sangareddy told The Hindu that although a woman doctor and an ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Midwife) were present in the hospital when the injured man was brought in on January 14, they were afraid of attending to him as his friends were purportedly drunk.
In August last year, four women from Rangareddy district died after undergoing double puncture laparoscopic (DPL) surgery, a sterilisation procedure, at a government hospital in Ibrahimpatnam. A five-member committee constituted to investigate the incident established various irregularities in the surgeries. It suggested that a criminal case be filed against Dr Joel Kumar Sunil, the DPL surgeon.